Now I’ve seen everything….
According to this article, Linus Torvalds, a hero of mine, has commissioned something rather evil and unwitting. He commissioned the LINUX MARK INSTITUTE to over see defending the Linux trademark. I could be wrong, but if I were to start up and non-profit distro based on the famous kernel, do ya think I could really afford any money towards a licensing of a name? I’d start a free distribution. If there’s no money coming in, how can there be much more than operating expenses going out? It would make me think twice about using in my trademark. Maybe CentOS has it right when they left off the Linux mark from the name. Maybe it’s safer now. I just wonder what’s going to happen when Linux is no longer a “buzzword” because of this money grubbing attempt at “defending the Linux mark.”
Really, if you think about it, Linux only became popular because the mark was allowed to be used free of charge. I have lost a lot of my respect for Linus. I think he means well, but having leagions of lawyers and asking for money is not the way to go about this type of thing. Yeah, go after the people who are supporting your software and contributing back to it…. It kinda sounds familiar…. But what do I know? I was just an avid supporter of him and his software….
Maybe more later….
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